Well, it has been about a month and half since our very first sign of the pink plague showed up. Oh, the stress since that point! But, don't be afraid to read on. It ends so so so happy! :)
The first sign of the pink eye showed one night as I was reading to the girls getting them ready to go to bed. I saw a eye goop in the corner of our oldest's eye and thought it was much bigger and a but more yellow than normal. I immediately thought of pink eye, but thought "eh, maybe it will just go away", because I didn't know what to do. It was going full force by day three. She didn't sleep good for two or three nights and we would have to wake up a few times a night to clean out her eyes. This whole time I had been cleaning her eyes with breast milk I would pump onto some soft toilet paper.It took about a week to get it to go away, and I was so relieved when it did because we were supposed to be going up north.
We went up north, and our second night at my sister's house my husband and I both woke up sick with a cold and nasty sore throats. Baby girl also woke up with an eye gooped shut. The goop was white normal colored, which was different than our oldest's. We decided to go home that day.
Baby girls' eye kept being goopy but wasn't too too bad. I was also cleaning her eyes with breast milk. Then it spread to the middle girly. So, I was then cleaning baby girl's and middle girly's eyes out with a drop of breast milk from a medicine syringe at least three times a day. I would have them close their eyes, and drop a drop of it by their tear duct, so when they opened their eyes it would seep in and they could blink it in. I was also wiping their eyes down throughout the day and night. Finally about a week in, middle girly's eyes had gotten so so bad and baby girl's goop started turning yellow. Middle girly's eyes were literally gooping 24/7 and she had a constant thick layer of slime underneath them. Poor little girl! I was so so so sad for her and also stressed out. Finally, I decided I was going to go to the doctor for the meds.
The doctor confirmed a bacterial infection and gave me an antibiotic gel. It will be gone within 5 days, he said. Well, the medicine definitely helped clear the eyes, but day 5 came and went and I was still putting the meds in both baby girl's and middle girl's eyes because the goop was still there a little bit, but would start getting worse if I didn't give it to them. Luckily, they had a check up that next week.
The doctor said to stop putting the antibiotics in their eyes because maybe it was the chemicals from the gel that was actually irritating their eyes and not letting them fully heal (?). Okay, no more meds. Their eyes were gooping up more again and pretty badly. I was cleaning their eyes off multiple times a day again, and they would wake up with their eyes tightly stuck together.
I AM STRESSING OUT BAD AT THIS POINT. I am thinking I might jump off a cliff soon if anyone else wakes up with goopy eyes or if theirs don't go away. Are they going to go blind? Are they going to have pink eye for life? ARE THEY GOING TO DIE!? You might think that is exaggerated. But, these were all very real thoughts to me---this is called anxiety---blowing things up to crazy proportions!
I was desperate and I didn't want to start using the medicine again because My Man was telling me that the meds probably had killed all the good bacteria in their eyes and now they couldn't heal right (OH FREAKIN' GREAT.)
I started looking online and in an oil book that we have. I had looked their right when my oldest had gotten it, but it said lavender or tea tree oil and I didn't know how to do that. Drip the oil in the eye? Wipe it with it? Those are such strong oils and it would damage their eye and HURT. So, I didn't use it. After looking online, people said they would dilute it or just put the plain oil on their eyebrow and on the bone right below their eye or on their cheek bone. Everyone said the lavender worked miracles. Lavender it was.
I diluted it in coconut oil (coconut oil is amazing for cleaning the goop of their eyes in the morning ;)) and would clean their eyes with that mixture throughout the day. It kept the eyes semi-clean, but pink eye still there!
I started putting a very small streak of the plain lavender oil right along the cheek bone underneath their eyes when they went to bed. It cleared up the little babes eyes, but middle girly's pink eye was STILL THERE.
Now, I am just like, "Pink eye? What? We got it down. We'll live with it forever AND WE'LL BE HAPPY WHETHER YOUR FRIENDS WITH US OR NOT! (because no one wants to come near any of you when you have pink eye)
Then, inspiration, the Spirit, I don't even know folks...here's the story.
middle girly got a virus that made her break out in crazy amounts of hives. It was a side effect from the virus. Well, even after the virus left, the hives stayed. Completely randomly, she would break out in hives. Big patches of big hives. She would get them completely randomly or when pressure was put on her skin (ie holding her wrists to swing her in the air, her taking a nap and sleeping on her hand). It took months and months, but she has been hive free for a little while now. I started wondering if maybe this was the same case. She had started with the bacterial infection, but her allergies took over and started allergy pink eye, even after the bacteria was gone. So, I tried allergy medicine. She woke up in the morning----CLEAR EYES. I didn't give her more medicine. Next morning---goopy eyes. Gave her the allergy medicine---clear eyes. Gave her more before bed---clear eyes. She went two days with clear eyes, and then a huge storm and wind and allergens came and her eyes started to goop a little---gave her allergy medicine---clear eyes. maybe she'll go three days without it this time. She has been pretty clear now. Moral of the story:
PINK EYE CAN EAT IT AND WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! One more childhood weird illness thing to go, only probably fifty more.
I hope this post was helpful to anyone else who's children might get pink eye. I honestly feel like had it not been an allergy case also, the lavender would have cleared everyone's eyes up just fine.
